Happy May Day!  I'm happy to report that there have been no more fishing injuries and mom's finger is healing up just fine.  Mom had her blood drawn last Friday and was called on Monday and told to go in for a bag of fluids.  She had her blood drawn today as well.  She told Dr. B today that her blood work results make her nervous, and he looked at her confused and said why.  She gets an email when they come through a few hours after her blood is taken with all of the results and it says if its good or not.  I read her results on Friday and I agree, seeing numbers at higher levels than they should be throws up some red flags.  He said that he is not worried about any of them right now and she shouldn't be either.  Her creatinine is higher than they want, but it is slowly coming down and he is happy with that.  He did say he isn't worried that the medication is creating this issue as this medication is metabolized by the liver and not the kidneys.

Mom continues to hold her weight around 115, which is pretty close to where she normally was so that is good.  She continues to have some digestive side effects, but we all agreed dealing with those issues is way better than having the cancer getting worse or some of the possible side effects.  She is a little more tired and we think this may be because of the digestive issues.  We discussed that she needs to be taking the suggested Imodium doses to help with this issue.  If you've seen mom lately, you'd probably say she looks pretty tan.  We asked Dr. B about this and he said that he doesn't believe the medication is making her look tan but did say that when she goes outside he wants her in a hat and sunscreen as the medication makes her more susceptible to sun burn and sun damage.

At this point, mom looks good and is doing well and he said we should remain carefully happy and hopeful.  The plan going forward is to continue bloodwork every two weeks, meet with him in a month and do another PET scan in a month.  We have those all set up and are feeling good about this plan.  

We asked if he had any other patients taking this medication.  He said he does not, but he has a colleague who recently asked him about mom's case.  He has a patient in his 50's with lung cancer.  His tumor was so large that he could not breath and his tumor was not responding to chemotherapy, so he was in the hospital for three months as he required continuous oxygen.  He started the medication that mom is on and after two weeks, he was released and able to go home as his tumor had shrunk that much.  It really is amazing how far they've come and how amazing some of these medications are.  It made mom really happy to hear of someone else having such amazing results as her.

Mom's appointment was a little later in the day than usual which meant that for me to be able to go, Teddy got to join.  He was excited to meet the doctor that "has helped make grandma's cancer go to sleep." He sat and listened and later told me that he liked him a lot.  Mom rode with us home as dad was making a stop and as soon as we got in the car mom got the "so grandma, do you think we could go fishing soon question from Teddy.  

Thank you for the messages, well wishes, love and prayers.  We love and appreciate all of you more than you'll ever know.

Love,
Kira